Never Go Away
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Gajeel's convinced that, eventually, everyone leaves. His daughter reminds him that that's not true. - One-shot, set in the Baby Steps series.


He was a brooding man. A brutish, fearful type that most would flee from, just at the sight. He was typically agitated and, even when he wasn't, was prone to outbursts and violence. His attitude was poor in nearly all situations, he hardly even was friendly towards those he would call friends and, even, at times said people would consider themselves better off with him and his sour disposition.

This was not the case for Gaia though. Not in the slightest.

She knew the man's many tempers and proneness to solitude. How much of a jerk he could be at times to others. That it was better, most of the time, to just leave the dragon alone.

She just didn't care.

Most people spying Gajeel sitting all alone in the early dusk hours of a summer night would leave him to whatever it was he was doing, out there on the back porch. Even Pantherlily and Levy found this to be the best scenario for whatever funk he'd come home with. He'd grumbled at all of them a bit before heading out there to sulk.

The sun was still setting in the sky though when Gaia decided to push through the back screen door and headed out there. The five year old had just finished her dinner and, considering her father was home from his job and not out training or something, that meant that she needed him to sing her to sleep. It was part of the deal. If he didn't want to do it then he shouldn't have come home!

He didn't even look away from his longing gaze up at the moon which had already started to show itself in the purple skies above, but at the feeling of soft hands shoving him gently in the back, he did shut his red eyes tightly.

"Ain't you got something else to do, baby?" he grumbled to her without a glance. "I'm busy."

"Liar."

"I ain't no liar. And I'm not gonna take well to being called one."

He got another shove, this time a bit harder. "Daddy, come sing."

"No."

"Please?"

This got him sometimes. She was a pro at drawing paternal responses from the man. Under another circumstance, there would have been a good chance that he'd jumped up and rushed to do whatever stupid thing it was that she wanted.

It was not the case this time, however.

"Gaia," Gajeel complained as, tilting his head back up, he only stared at the sky. "Go away."

Her face crumpled some and she thought about crying. That always did the trick. But, for some reason, instead she only moved to not shove at his back this time, but rather wrap her arms around his neck and rest against his back.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly as he didn't even reach a hand up to pat at where hers were clasped tightly around him. "Daddy?"

Grunting, Gajeel refused to answer. Gaia wasn't so easily done away with though. Not at all. While she was sweet and kind like her mother, she'd definitely inherited his stubbornness. She released her hold on the man (it wasn't no fun to hang from his neck if he wasn't running around at full speed pretending to be a dragon who she was slaying) and moved then to sit beside him on the porch. Tilting her head back, she stared up at the same sky as him, but didn't see anything of interest.

When she glanced at her father's face though, she saw a look that she couldn't quite figure out. He didn't seem angry and he didn't seem disinterested and, well, those were his two main expressions, she was a bit at a lost as to what was going on in his head at the moment.

That wasn't to say that she honestly knew for certain at any point, of course. Rather, she was just pretty good at telling when he was angry or when he couldn't care less about what was going on. Then there were the rare moments when he was actually happy and she liked those a bunch, sure, but didn't expect them too often. At the moment, it seemed like they weren't any in any of the three though and, unsure of what to do, she only continued to stare up at the sky and wait.

Her father never made her wait long.

"You know what I was doing when I was your age?" he asked as the crickets out in the yard started their chirping. "Gaia?"

She shook her head because the question, honestly, made little sense to her.

No way her father wasn't the exact age he was at that moment since the beginning of time.

No way.

"I wasn't sitting around, having other provide for me, that's for sure."

Again, his words were meaningless.

So she only said, "Oh."

Nodding his head a bit, he glanced down at her. "I was all alone. I didn't have a house or a mom or a dad or an Exceed. You get that? Didn't even have one of those, like some of those wannabes up at the hall."

"You got Lily."

"Yeah, a lot later!" Gajeel made a face as he glanced back up at the sky. "I guess the one that was supposed to be with me didn't even wanna stick around."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter," he told her then with a shrug. "I had Metalicana, anyways, eventually, and he looked out for me. He took care of me."

"That's your dragon," she said with confidence and, when he nodded his head, Gaia added, "but he went away."

"Everyone does. It's part of life."

Oh.

 _Oh._

Now she could tell what her father was experiencing. Or at least a very rudimentary version of it.

He was sad.

Wow.

That one felt pretty new.

Gaia wasn't prone to sadness. In any way. She had probably the happiest life one could, being the child of mages. She enjoyed the tales of their travels, played with Lily when he was home, got to travel with her mother sometimes, and even knew other powerful mages up at her parents work.

But that didn't mean that she didn't get sad sometimes.

There were days that it just didn't make sense to her that they both had to be gone or when Gajeel informed her he'd be gone for awhile, she'd get a bit upset, because that was upsetting. The whole thing was, really. She thought that she was more than ready to go everywhere with him and basically be a mage too, but he just didn't see it that way yet, it seemed. He said in another five years, maybe, but as someone who'd just lived a full five years, this sounded outrageous and unfair.

Her sadness always went away though, eventually. Usually before her parents even returned to her. Even if it didn't though, they always would do that. Return to her. She knew that. Though anecdotal evidence didn't hold up in the courts of science, Gaia was pretty certain she'd tested all the variables and yes, no matter what, they were coming back to her eventually.

It was a foregone conclusion.

This, however, wasn't the case with her father and his dragon, she knew. Or, well, he'd told her before, all that had happened, but none of it made too much sense to her other than the fact that, while he now knew what happened to Metalicana, it had never sat too right with him and that it was a sore subject with the man.

Sometimes, when he'd be telling her stories and she'd request one about when he lived with the dragon (his adventures back then were more relatable to her), he wouldn't be as willing to give it to her. He'd skirt around the idea and talk about something else instead. Or he'd get angry and tell her that they didn't need to hear about some damn dragon when he was right there! Him! Gajeel! Forget anyone else.

She wasn't old enough to understand the relation between her father and the famed dragon, much less the baggage that was ever present in his mind when he thought of him. She just knew that when he did tell her one about the closest thing to a father he'd ever had, he seemed to really enjoy it.

He was almost...happy. Or he sounded happy.

It's part of why she liked those stories the best.

She liked when her father was happy. Not to say that him being angry or disinterested weren't beneficial at other times (he was rarely angry at her and his disinterest in what she was doing typically led to her getting away with things she wouldn't with her mother). Still, his joy, though rare, was infectious and seemed to keep everyone in the house in high spirits.

Mostly though she just loved her father and hoped that he was always happy.

"I'm here," she complained then as she patted at his arm. "And I won't go away."

Gajeel seemed to consider this after she spoke, glancing down at the girl once more. As heavy as his red eyes felt to most people though, they were pretty normal to Gaia and she only stared right back up into them innocently. She was actually a bit perturbed that he would imply that she would eventually go away or that he would and bleh.

Who would even put that thought out into the universe?

He'd been clinching his fists before, but as they stared at one another, the one closest to her fell open and Gaia moved to lay her own hand in it, so that next time be balled it up, hers would be there too. This was striking to Gajeel as some sort of symbolic sign from powers from beyond, but Gaia actually did it because she really wanted to eventually wiggle her way into his lap and thought this was a nice first step.

He gave the best snuggles, her father did.

But you had to con him into giving them out sometimes.

In the moment though, all he could do was let out a bit of a breath before smirking. Then, "Gihi," before turning to look back up at the sky.

Giggling as well, Gaia felt like she was one step closer to get her bedtime singing session...until she heard from inside the house, her mother calling out to her.

"Gaia, where did you go? You're supposed to be getting ready for bed," Levy was complaining from inside and, quickly, the little girl abandoned any sort of devious plan and just climbed right into her father's lap, hoping to hide from the woman.

"What are you doing?" he grumbled though he didn't move her. Yet. "Gaia? Levy's callin' for you so-"

"I don't wanna go," she complained as she snuggled into his chest. Then, peeking up at him from where her head was buried in his shirt, she added, "Until you sing to me."

Making a face, he finally picked her up and sat her back on her own feet. Over the sound of her whining, he said, "Go inside, to your mother. I'll be there soon. To sing to ya."

And that was enough to get her to jump up and rush off to whatever punishment her mother would dole out for going outside when she was told not to bother the man. But he didn't join her immediately. He sat out there for a bit longer, glaring up at the moon.

It was only once, from behind him, he heard the backdoor creak open once more and someone speak softly to him.

"She's waiting for you, you know," he heard his wife tell him as she stood there, not taking a step onto the porch. "She won't go to sleep until you come."

Finally, looking away from the moon, he glared down at his once more empty hands before clinching them tightly and whispering, "I know."

"You actually have someone that tolerates your guitar playing," Levy went on. "I don't think you should squander-"

"I'll be there in a second."

"Gajeel," she whispered then as he started to push up. "She just loves."

"Yeah." As he turned to face the woman, he even nodded a bit. "I know."


End file.
